Griever plays Legionwood:

Gameplay: 8/10

As far as traditional role-playing games go, Legionwood has extremely solid gameplay. The well-designed levels and puzzles, decent enemy and boss balancing (most of the time, see later) and well-implemented custom systems mean the standard grind-dungeon-story-repeat formula works well throughout. Equally, I don’t see any reason why future chapters won’t follow suit.

One stand-out system present in Legionwood is the stat system, a system that allows you to modify your characters stats using points gained after each level up. This system, coupled to the fact that skills can be bought and learnt by anyone on the party, mean the characters have some flexibility about them. Do you want everyone in your party to possess every skill in the game? Well, you can! Unfortunately, each character has a set growth that runs alongside this system, and that does limit your ability to level the characters up exactly as you’d like. For instance, the main character has a stat growth that is tuned well to the stereotypical swordsman, so it would be difficult not to follow that particular path. The equipment limitations each character has also put a heavy bias on the way you’re “supposed” to develop the characters, but I guess trying to break those factors could become something that makes this game more (re)playable.

The main problem with the gameplay in Legionwood is the balancing of the enemies right at the start of the game. The enemies are far too strong, especially in a game that holds the player’s hand through liberal use of tutorials, and it isn’t particularly obvious where the best place to gain those first few levels is. As it turns out, there is an area perfectly suited to starting your levelling in, but it isn’t in a particularly intuitive position as it is not in either the first town (where there is a difficult set of sewers that could catch people out) or the first real field map you’re supposed to explore. After you get past level three the balancing stops being an issue, but if you wondered onto the path you’re supposed to take at the start instead of searching out the cave where levelling is much easier at the start, you could easily get wiped out several times before reaching level three! This could, obviously, drive many people away from playing this game even though it should not.

Characters/Dialogue: 8/10

The characters are pretty well thought out in this game. Each has a consistent mindset and dialogue fitting with what you’d expect, although I suspect the main reason for this is that the characters are all barely disguised, slightly modified versions of the character archetypes you see in most games of this style. There’s nothing wrong with this as, in general terms, all characters are a modified version of some kind of stereotype; the fact that the characters are pulled off properly is what matters.

Well-implemented, archetypal behaviour isn’t the only thing that makes the characters work well. The two main characters, despite their stereotypical characterisation, are really fleshed out by the constant reminder that “something” tragic happened in their past. It clearly has an influence on the choices they make and this influence is extremely consistent, and it also adds something else to the storyline and so helps to drive the game forward in that respect as well. The other characters who join your party tend to have similar, historical problems/influences/loyalties and these kinds of influences are always represented properly through the characters actions!

Storyline/Setting: 9/10

The setting is what you’d expect from a fantasy-themed role-playing game, but it is the little things throughout that make the setting stand out from the other fantasy-themed games out there. There is, for instance, a castle town with obvious segregation between the commoners, farmers, merchants and nobles; this kind of town structure is something a lot of games miss out on, instead choosing to randomly place houses around a town in a vaguely aesthetic way, and so the town design in Legionwood really reinforces the setting. Little things like this really make the setting more vibrant than I thought it would be in a fantasy RPG (I guess this is more of a mapping accomplishment, but I thought I would mention it here as well because it is relevant).

The storyline isn’t off the pace either. The depth of the character’s histories, the political landscape of the game world and the loyalties of the characters who join the party all come together to reinforce the “bad guy wants to take over the world” plotline that the game is built upon. Sometimes the main antagonists can be a little bit too specific with what they are planning to do and that takes some of the sting out of the plotline, at least in my opinion, but they are pretty consistent in doing this. I guess you can just put it down to comic-book villain syndrome (i.e. spelling out your plans because you “know” you’re going to win anyway) and ignore it if you want to; it never really spoils the storyline anyway.

Graphics/Mapping: 7/10

I’m going to say right off the bat that I am not a fan of the RMVX RTP graphical style, so any game using this style tend to irk me at least slightly. For example, the houses are far too small compared to the charactersets and the charactersets themselves look a bit daft at the best of times (or look like kids at the worst). Obviously, this bias means you can probably add a couple of points here if you actually like the RMVX RTP; it just doesn’t sit right with me.

However, despite the bias I have against the RMVX RTP, I still think the mapping in this game is excellent. I have already mentioned that the town design in this game really bolsters the setting and I have also mentioned that the dungeon design is equally well-implemented; these two factors come together to make the mapping far more than just functional.

The monster graphics are an interesting bunch I feel I should mention. Since the game uses a side-view battle system (non-ATB, just side-view) the monsters clearly couldn't be from the RTP, so instead a set of custom monsters designs are used. The monster graphics are very hit and miss as, although some of the monsters are brilliantly designed, some (mostly human(oid) enemies) look really, really daft. To be honest, I don't really know how to feel about them, but I just had to mention them anyway.

I guess I should also mention the font used. It isn't exactly the simlest of fonts, but it is still easy to read and - in its own way - enforced the fantasy setting. It's a good choice; just make sure you remember to install it!

Overall, although I personally feel this game would look a lot better in RMXP, I can’t argue with the way the RMVX RTP has been used in this game. Implementation is definately more important than base aesthetics are.

Music/Sounds: 6/10

The music is exactly what you would expect from a fantasy-themed game, but most of the musical tracks are pretty boring. The tracks are all really obvious choices and the game rarely throws anything special out of your speakers. The same is true of the sound effects; nothing special, but definately functional. Basically, this area of the game is extremely average, but it’s nothing to worry about in the grand scheme of things.

Overall: 8/10

I didn’t have high hopes for this game; mostly because I’ve played Dark Gaia’s other traditional role-playing game (Tales of Worlds) and found it woeful. However, Dark Gaia’s improvement as a developer since releasing Tales of Worlds is patently obvious in Legionwood. You should definitely play this game if traditional, fantasy role-playing is what you’re in to: Legionwood might not try to break the mould, but it does what it sets out to do extremely well.